BARBARA WITHAM MCCARGAR, SOPRANO, AND FRIENDS IN CONCERT

September 7, 2006 - Aquinas College faulty member, Barbara Witham McCargar will be featured with eight other performers in this concert of chamber and ensemble works at Kretschmer Recital Hall in the Art and Music Center of Aquinas College. The concert will take place on Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 4 p.m. Adjunct faculty from Aquinas College provide strong support, as pianists, Mary Hurd, Steve Talaga and Roger MacNaughton accompany many selections, Sr. Catherine Williams, pianist, on the dulcimer for one selection.

Well known in the area for her handbell directing ability (director of Embellish, and the Aquinas and Calvin student groups), Stephanie Wiltse is a wonderful mezzo-soprano and will be partnering with McCargar for four duets. What is most interesting about them is their beauty and the fact that three of them have ties to the sisters, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot Garcia, who were marvelous but little known performers and composers in the mid-nineteenth century.

Steve Redmon, cellist will be featured with Mary Hurd, forming the continuo to de la Guerre's first cantata, the final two movements. Earlier this summer the Grand Rapids audience was treated to a debut performance of "Esther the Musical" by Laurie Jacobs. Well, the excerpts from the canata to be debuted this time is from a 17th century version of that same story, Esther!

What program would be complete without some popular music and a couple jazz standards? McCargar recaptures her roots and loves through tunes by Jobim, Holliday, Monk, Sondheim and Grand Rapids's own Roger MacNaughton. Steve Talaga and MacNaughton will be lending their unique piano stylings to McCargar's full vocal range for these exquisite pieces.

And for Vox Angelica fans, new arrangements of Hildegard von Bingen's timeless chants, not yet recorded, will be brought to life in the lovely Kretschmer Recital Hall.